MR_KAVANAGH
Chris Kavanagh
Ran on: 07-30-2007
Chris Kavanagh, who as a member of the Berkeley rent board is supposed to live in Berkeley, is fighting eviction from a cottage in Oakland.
Ran on: 07-30-2007 ... more

Photo: HANDOUT

Berkeley's version of Ed Jew is familiar face to county's D.A.

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The Alameda County district attorney has opened a criminal investigation into whether Berkeley rent board member Chris Kavanagh, who is fighting his eviction from an Oakland cottage, lied about being a Berkeley resident in order to hold office.

It's not the first time the D.A. has looked into potential perjury charges against Kavanagh, whose case is similar to the residency challenge being waged against San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew.

Four years ago, Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque and then-City Clerk Sherry Kelly forwarded an anonymous tip about Kavanagh's living situation to county prosecutors. The city's own preliminary probe found "serious questions that warranted further (criminal) investigation," Albuquerque said Tuesday.

The tipster said Kavanagh was living at the cottage on 63rd Street in Oakland's Rockridge District - and not any of three Berkeley addresses he had given when he first ran for election to the rent board in November 2002, records from the 2003 city inquiry show.

Prosecutors investigated but came up short on evidence, the D.A.'s office said Tuesday.

However, after our Monday column detailed Kavanagh's attempt to fight his Oakland eviction - with the help of an attorney whose nonprofit firm is under contract to the Berkeley rent board - prosecutors said they were reopening the probe.

By the way, the last mailing address Kavanagh provided the rent board was 2705 Webster St. in Berkeley. That happens to be the address of the Elmwood neighborhood post office.

Stumped in Sacramento: He can solve global warming with a stroke of the pen, land on the covers of both Time and Newsweek - but when it comes to winning two votes for his own budget from fellow Republicans, Arnold Schwarzenegger just can't get it done.

Sacramento insiders tell us the problem is threefold:

1) A brewing leadership fight within the Republican caucus that has leader Dick Ackerman unable to cut any deals.

2) A suspicion among Republicans that the more liberal Arnold and Democrats won't follow through on any deal with conservatives designed to win their votes.

3) Republicans' unwillingness to give up the megaphone that has gotten them attention after a year of being virtually ignored.

"Every time we think there's a deal, they move the goalpost," fumed one Arnold adviser.

Take two: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, facing a barrage of bad press over trash- and needle-strewn homeless encampments, is considering the idea of declaring all city parks closed from midnight to 6 a.m.

Golden Gate Park, where the problem is most severe, is already closed to all but joggers and drivers from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. - or at least it is under Recreation and Park Department rules.

But apparently the stay-out rule isn't law.

So now comes the idea of both expanding the closed hours and boosting all park violations to automatic misdemeanors - rather than the optional infractions, which are handled in traffic court and get dumped by the bucketful once the legal aid lawyers show up.

Strengthening the laws, the mayor's people figure, will put the cops on more solid ground.

"The mayor is intrigued by the idea as a way to give law enforcement the tools it needs to connect these homeless people to the services they need," mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard said.

How citing people for being in the park after dark is going to change their lives remains to be seen.

The mayor briefly discussed the closure idea with residents at a town hall meeting Saturday, but it got a lukewarm reception.

On Monday, during a heated discussion about park problems at the mayor's regular meeting with department heads and staff, Public Utilities Commission boss Susan Leal again raised the idea - pointing out that New York's Central Park has been closed for years between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. to help reduce crime and grime.

When Newsom asked his department heads whether they thought it was a good idea, there was an overwhelming show of hands, sources in attendance said.

But then, many at City Hall thought it was a good idea the first time the city "closed" the park.

Family affair: Everyone loves Alex - or at least that's the impression one got Monday night at the opening of former Gavin Newsom campaign manager Alex Tourk's new offices in North Beach.

Tourk - who stormed off the mayor's re-election campaign after his wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, came clean to having had an affair with Newsom - has opened a consulting firm, and the place was packed with a who's who of San Francisco government, politics and media.

"If I stay any longer, I'm going to have to call the fire marshal and have the place shut down," Hayes-White said.

As for wife Ruby, a little while back she tossed her own combination birthday and one-year "clean and sober" anniversary party, where estranged husband Alex himself showed up as the surprise guest.

He even brought a cake.

EXTRA! Catch our Web page at sfgate.com/matierandross. Cast your vote for how best to rid San Francisco's Golden Gate Park of its needle problem. Play the George Bush drives Gordon Brown caption contest.

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